World Cafe with Youth

Fifth in a series of posts about Justice GA and the June UUA Board Meeting

Energetic, noisy, slightly chaotic -- the third annual "World Cafe" with Youth Caucus and the UUA Board did not run out of pizza.

A cross between small group discussions and speed dating, World Cafes are a great way to get a lot of meaningful discussion in a short amount of time.  The discussion questions this year were focused on social justice - here is a sampling of some of the responses from about 75 Youth who participated:

Tell us about social justice activities back in your congregation

    Often it is projects “for the kids and youth” and not for whole congregation. 

   They are youth-led or very small, not cohesive

   Most consistently, they involve only the youth and children

   We learned about other religions before anything significant was taught about UU. 

What's happening for you here?

   Am making adult connections, as opposed to youth cons that are wonderful but all youth

   Seeing other ministers and types of worship

   Workshops and learning is fueling our flames and equipping us by learning about resources and how to use them

   Deepened spiritually

   Can do things that affect more than my own congregation

   For Bridgers, to know there are other congregations broadens their perspectives, but also gives them hope that wherever they go there might be another UU congregation 

   My church hasn’t spent any time teaching about national decision making, so I felt a little confused.    

   I've heard UUs talk about love and acceptance, and this is the first time I've felt any action.

How can we, the UUA Board,  stay in conversation with our Youth to accomplish and understand the deeper purpose of this GA?

   Come to cons!  Come where they are.

   Make learning available and accessible to them, encourage congregations to watch and participate in GA streaming

   Youth are separate from their congregations during services so not sure how to connect with adults

   Was not a priority in system at any level to get them funded to GA.   (Most of these fund raised for a year to be able to attend in PHX)

This year had a twist -- the last 5 minutes of each of three "rounds" turned the tables, and had Youth asking trustees any question they wanted to ask:

How did I get to serve on the board?

How can they get involved beyond their own congregations?

What opportunities do we have for them?

What service projects like UUSC trips?

How did you get to be a UU?  If you had to choose between being Unitarian or Universalist, which would you choose?

And these are from just a few of the groups (there were about 25 in two sessions)!

A personal note:  this is the first year I did not lead the World Cafe, but instead turned both sessions over to Caleb Raible-Clark, Youth Trustee, and Abhimanyu Janamanchi, Youth Observer.  They did not do it exactly as I would have -- they did it better. 

Congregation on fire

Fourth in a series of posts about Justice GA and the June UUA Board meeting

"Is this GA a success?"   It's Saturday afternoon, at a GA feedback workshop for the UUA Board to hear from those attending in Phoenix. 

"We don't know yet." 

Success is not measured by this General Assembly -- it is measured by what happens when delegates and other attendees go home. 

If my congregation, the UU Church of Berkeley, is any indication, the chances are high that the answer will be "yes!".  Today's service included stories and powerful word pictures of General Assembly from our co-ministers, a chalice lighting by the 30 people who attended (a river of bright gold), and a follow up "summer forum" put on by the attendees. 

 "This was my first GA, and I have been changed forever."

"This is my 16th GA, and I have never felt this way.  I am transformed."

"I am outraged at what is being done in the name of my country."

"I cannot unknow what I know.  I cannot turn my back.  This has changed my life."  

So it went around the circle of attendees.  This congregation of 450 members has 30 people who came back changed.  Who are already organizing, contacting local partners, and inviting in others.  Who are seeing clearly the connection between justice work and their faith.  Who are deepening that faith.

Who are hopeful that this time, we can focus and make a difference.   And I believe this scenario was going on in hundreds of congregations this morning.

We are not turning back. 

Sin volver atrås,
Sin volver atrås.

Building a Web of Relationship: Two Stories of Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery

Second in a series of posts about "Justice GA" and the June UUA Board meeting. 

This post is from the Rev. Dr. Michael Tino, UUA Board member from Metro New York, about some of the connections and aftermath of the Doctrine of Discovery.  You can read more about the Doctrine and why the UUA Board asked the delegates to approve it on my January 27th post.

If I had ever been tempted to view the Doctrine of Discovery as an idea that lives only in our past, my experience working as a UUA Board member on our resolution repudiating that doctrine would have quickly disabused me of that notion.  Indeed, the relationships that began with our agreement to take up that resolution make it very clear that the Doctrine of Discovery infects our present with its outdated and oppressive ideology.

Two stories illustrate my experience in this process more than any others.

The first begins in the weeks leading up to General Assembly, when I was contacted by a UU living in Hawai’i and working with Native Hawai’ian people seeking to secure their rights to religious freedom and self-determination and the return of their sacred religious sites.  Dr. George M. Williams has long been a proponent of religious freedom, working with groups like the International Association for Religious Freedom, and now he is working with leaders of the Hawai’ian Kingdom (the Native Hawai’ian term for their people).

I learned through Dr. Williams that leaders of the Hawai’ian Kingdom had learned about our resolution, and expressed some concern over its language.  Native Hawai’ians, you see, are neither American Indians nor even indigenous North Americans (they are a Polynesian people).  They asked how we could make our resolution explicitly apply to their daily struggles to practice their religions and own their sacred sites (the Doctrine of Discovery gives title to these sites, as it does to all of the traditional lands of indigenous peoples and the Hawai’ian Kingdom to the U.S. Government).  Their hope is that this explicit inclusion can help the UUA and our Hawai’i congregations to advocate better for the return of these sacred sites.  It was an easy change to make, and an honor to make it.

The second story takes place in the minutes following the overwhelming passage of the resolution by the General Assembly, when Tupac Enrique Acosta, leader of the UUA’s partner Tonatierra, pulled me aside.  He wanted to introduce me to a delegation of indigenous people who had accompanied him to GA to witness our vote.  All of them were deeply appreciative of our partnership, and quite moved by our religious rejection of this oppressive doctrine.  All of them expressed to me what it meant to them to have their lives and struggles taken seriously by an entire denomination.

Next, Mr. Acosta invited me to participate in a religious ritual of his people, in which I offered a copy of the just-passed resolution to a leader of his nation, passing it four times over a sacred incense bowl.  After the fourth pass, my colleague accepted the resolution, and two members of our circle sounded shell horns to mark the sacred occasion.  Later, in a conversation with Mr. Acosta, we discussed how our resolution is one step in the journey of building right relationship with our indigenous siblings as well as with our common mother, the Earth.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work with the Board and the General Assembly to pass this historic resolution.  It will be more of an honor to take the next steps, side by side, with our new partners and those still to be identified—in Hawai’i, in Arizona, and here in New York as well.  Will you take up the call to partnership in your home?  If you do, I trust that you will find that our resolution was not just about the injustices of history, but about ongoing injustice affecting all of humanity.

Dancing in 100 Degrees

First of many posts about the General Assembly in Phoenix and the UUA Board meetings before and after

As our bus pulls up to the vigil site, we see hundreds of marchers slowly walking from the buses that left before ours, carrying (LED) candles.   We can't hear the counter demonstrators because everyone on our bus is singing

when I breath in... I breath in peace.

when I breath out... I breath out love.

We wait what seems like a long time before the buses in front of us clear.  There are what appear to be dozens of dark-uniformed police officers, and khaki clad sheriff's deputies, standing apart.  We are dazzled by the hundreds of candle lights, glowing orange in the night, moving with the crowd. 

when I breath in... I breath in peace.

when I breath out... I breath out love. 

Our bus pulls in and we step out, taking our own candles.  Our route is lined with blue-shirted Witness Team members, making a gentle container for us as we walk to the vigil site.  There are dozens of them too.  I do not see or hear the counter-protesters, though I know they are there.  I see only us.  And then I start to see more of us, the families of our partners, by the side of the route, holding signs:  "Shut down Tent City" say the signs, "thank you, gracias, thank you for coming" say the people.  "Gracias a ustedes", we answer, "thank you to you". 

We are packed together, chanting in Spanish, singing in English and Spanish, cheering the partners who have clearly spoken at many other rallies.  The voices of our own President, Peter Morales and that of Geoffrey Black, head of the United Church of Christ, mingle in the heat and energy.  A Baptist minister steps to the microphone and brings us even higher, calling us to what we are witnessing. Behind us, more buses come, more lights extending back as far as we can see.  

And on the right, Tent City.  They cannot see us, but they can hear us.  ¡Estamos aqui!  we shout.  ¡Libertad!  Shut it down!  Shut it down!  Orange candles sway back and forth.  We who believe in freedom cannot rest, we sing.  Cold bottles of water are passed among the crowd.  Make way on the left for the scooters!, someone cries.  Stay away from the barbed wire on the left!.  More singing, chanting, speaking, the voices hoarse from trying to be loud enough to be heard by those in back.  We are dancing, holding arms, swaying..  we are dancing in the light of God...  some say love, some say God, is there a difference? 

The crowd begins to thin.  

We are a gentle angry people

and we are singing, singing for our lives...

I check the time:  11:01.  I check the temperature:  100.  We make our way slowly back to the buses.  The young woman with me thanks the Phoenix police as we walk by.  And still there, lining the walk, are the families of our partners, saying "thank you.  Gracias.  Thank you for coming." 

We're gonna keep on movin' forward...

keep on movin' forward...

keep on movin' forward...

Never turning back,

Sin volver atrås.